National Sugar Institute, Kanpur signed Memorandum of Understanding with ICAR- Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana to carry out research & development work to boost ethanol production from maize. The MoU was signed today at Ludhiana by Prof. Narendra Mohan, Director, National Sugar Institute, Kanpur and Dr. H.S. Jat, Director, ICAR- Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana.
The MoU focusses on development of new maize hybrids by the ICAR- Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana suitable for different agro-climatic zones and evaluation of performance with respect to their ethanol production potential by National Sugar Institute, Kanpur at its Nano Ethanol Unit. We are hopeful that the MoU will go a long way in enhancing the income of maize farmers and reducing cost of production of maize based ethanol, said the two directors.
Maize is going to play an important role in achieving the targets for ethanol blending programme as by the year 2025. For that, as per the projections, about 7000 million liters of alcohol is to be produced from grains, rice and maize in particular to cope up with the requirement of ethanol blending in petrol, potable liquor and chemical sectors said Prof. Narendra Mohan, Director, National Sugar Institute. For a win-win situation for the farmers and industry, we have to work on increasing productivity from to factory with stress on developing self-sustainable bio-refinery model for maize based alcohol, he said.
The farm productivity of maize being about 2.7-2.9 tonnes/hectare in the country is lower and is almost half of the world’s average. While the productivities in major maize producing states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh differ to a significant extent, it also varies when cropped as Kharif and Rabi crop. We will make efforts to address this issue by developing new maize hybrids suitable for different agro-climatic conditions said Dr. H. S. Jat, Director, ICAR- Indian Institute of Millets Research.
(Mahendra Kr. Yadav)
Junior Technical Officer
